[MBCook]

Possible catch: Rosetta 2 goes away next year in macOS 27.

I don’t know what the story for VMs is. I’d really like to know as it affects me.

Sure you can go QEMU, but there’s a real performance hit there.

[js2]

Not until macOS 28., but you're right, it's frustratingly unclear whether the initial deprecation is limited to macOS apps or whether it will also stop working for VMs.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/102527

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/virtualization/run...

[stuxnet79]

This can be avoided by not upgrading to MacOS 28 right? I'm new to Mac's and the Apple release schedule so I'm not sure how mandatory the annual updates are.

[labcomputer]

Does Apple Silicon support VMs within VMs?

What if you run MacOS 27 in a VM, and then run the x86-hosting VM inside that?

[saagarjha]

It would be pretty difficult for Apple to disable Rosetta for VMs.

[js2]

How so?

[saagarjha]

It doesn’t require anything from the host

[js2]

The Apple documentation for using the Virtualization framework with ARM Linux VMs to run x86_64 binaries requires Rosetta to be installed:

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/virtualization/run...

So you must be talking about something else, perhaps ARM Windows VMs which use their own technology for running x86 binaries[^1].

In any case, please elaborate instead of being so vague. Thanks.

[^1]: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/arm/apps-on-arm-x8...

[saagarjha]

You can just splat whatever support files it needs into the VM there isn't anything special about them. In fact you can copy them onto a different (non-Mac) device and use them there too

[simondotau]

It never existed.

[js2]

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/virtualization/run...

[MBCook]

Oh I have another year? Phew.